Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has responded to the criticism of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN on the resolution of the Southern Governors , that among other things banned open grazing in Southern Nigeria, Njenje Media News reports.
Malami had taken a swipe at the Southern Governors decision and had posited that banning open grazing of cows in the South is similar to banning the sale of spare-parts in the North. Malami also declared the resolution as unconstitutional.
Akeredolu, himself a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, aside his previous stint as the Nigerian Bar Association Chairman delivered a emphatic response to Malami, questioning the rationale between his comparison of sales of spare parts and rearing of cows indiscriminately.
In a no holds barred Press Statement, Akeredolu challenged Malami to take up the case legally.
Njenje Media News has a copy of the Press Release, read below:
OUR DECISION IS IRREVERSIBLE AND WILL BE ENFORCED
I have just read the press statement credited to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Shehu Malami SAN on the resolution of the Southern Governors Forum to ban open grazing in their respective States. The AGF is quoted to have said that this reasoned decision, among others, is akin to banning all spare parts dealers in the Northern parts of the country and is unconstitutional.
It is most unfortunate that the AGF is unable to distill issues as expected of a Senior Advocate. Nothing can be more disconcerting. This outburst should, ordinarily, not elicit response from reasonable people who know the distinction between a legitimate business that is not in anyway injurious and a certain predilection for anarchy. Clinging to an anachronistic model of animal husbandry, which is evidently injurious to harmonious relationship between the herders and the farmers as well as the local populace, is wicked and arrogant.
Comparing this anachronism, which has led to loss of lives, farmlands and property, and engendered untold hardship on the host communities, with buying and selling of auto parts is not only strange. It, annoyingly, betrays a terrible mindset.
Mr Malami is advised to approach the court to challenge the legality of the Laws of the respective States baning open grazing and decision of the Southern Governor Forum taken in the interest of their people. We shall be most willing to meet him in Court.
The decision to ban open grazing stays. It will be enforced with vigour.
SIGNED
ARAKUNRIN OLUWAROTIMI O AKEREDOLU, SAN
GOVERNOR, ONDO STATE
